As the number of those testing positive to Delta variant of COVID-19 grows the Federal Government said that it will not enforce a total lockdown so as to contain the spread.

Dr Osagie Ehanire, Minister of Health speaking in Abuja at the weekly ministerial briefing on the update of COVID-19 pandemic also said that officially Nigeria is in the 3rd wave of COVID-19 just as he assured Nigerians the new variant of the virus does not pose the sort of threat that might warrant a lockdown of any form.

According: “So we have declared that Nigeria is officially in the 3rd wave of COVID-19 pandemic and as you know, it has already spread in many parts of the world mostly in India where it was first recognized spreading to other parts of the world and also Africa, including West Africa,”

He went on to say that the government was concerned about the Delta variant because “it is more transmissible and dangerous’’.

He said: ‘The country is particularly concerned about the Delta variant because it is much more transmissible and it has been estimated to be 60 per cent more transmissible, which means that where one virus of the previous variants would infect 100 people, this particular variant will infect 160 people and that is a lot.

“Secondly, this variant is also of concern because it affects even younger people. Before now we did say that younger people might likely get away or escape from the infection.

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“We expect the vaccination from 18 years upward but this Delta variant attacks people and we did say that those who suffer most from the other variants are people who have underlying illnesses but this variant seems to care less.

“It does not discriminate too much whether you have underlying illnesses or not,” he said.